A close group of five Russian nationalist composers were nicknamed (by one of their critic friends) the kuchka — sometimes translated as “the Mighty Five,” but actually meaning a group or clique. They were an interesting and exceptionally talented group — even though they included only one trained musician, Mily Balakirev (1837–1910). Alexander Borodin (1833–1887) was a distinguished chemist, César Cui (1835–1918) an engineer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) a navy man, and Modest Musorgsky (1839–1881) an officer in the Russian Imperial Guard.

What held this group together was their determination to make Russian music “Russian,” their deep interest in collecting folk songs, and their commitment to self-improvement as composers, relatively late in life.